


Lily's House

by bravenclawesome



Series: Memories, Magic and Misunderstandings [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, Humor, Kid Fic, Magic Revealed, Podfic Welcome, Sleepovers, Sweet, mean!Petunia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-30
Updated: 2012-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-12 01:43:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravenclawesome/pseuds/bravenclawesome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus goes to Lily's house for a (very innocent) sleepover after they each receive their Hogwarts letters. They get ready for their first school year at Hogwarts and fun times ensue. Severus is welcomed by the entire Evans family. Well, almost everyone, at least.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally posted on fanfiction.net, and can be found there under the same username. This story can be read as a standalone, but there are some references to part 1 of the series i.e. Four Seasons. So to minimise any possible confusion it would be advisable to read that first.

As the years passed, Severus found himself and Lily becoming closer as they spent more time together. They developed a silent understanding; it was unspoken and remained a subject never discussed; yet the feelings were mutual. Petunia had never spoken more than was utterly necessary to Lily, not since the fateful day in the park. She generally avoided them whenever Lily was with Severus – replacing speech with dagger-reminiscent glares. The small redhead was completely heartbroken after the first few months following and never had the heart to play games without her Tuney, claiming the memories were still too painful. So the two of them just sat there in the shade of the oak tree until the sun went down, and then they both headed home together. 

As the seasons changed and the leaves and flowers grew, withered and died, only to be renewed in the cycle again, Lily and Severus stayed friends. Best friends. Too soon, they were both too old for games, and they spent their time talking and telling each other about the wonderful, wild worlds they lived in.

Severus enjoyed telling Lily about magic, and when he touched on the subject of Hogwarts, Lily always got extremely excited. “I can’t _wait!”_ She said to him every time. “I want to get my owl _now!”_

And as Severus took joy in retelling the wonders of the wizarding world to an eagerly listening Lily, the redhead meanwhile prided herself in explaining to him in return about how Muggle things worked, such as airplanes, tape recorders, television and electricity. Severus was fascinated how Muggles could survive without magic – something he had always regarded that as an impossible feat if it came upon him.

But the thing they loved to do most of all was tell each other stories. Ghost stories, stories of pirates, princesses, princes, but their favorites always came down to the original fairy tales where everything was still simple and uncomplicated. Lily was inexplicitly drawn to those, and Severus understood why completely. Thus, by the tender age of ten, Severus found he could recite all the Muggle princess stories forwards, backwards and sideways blindfolded.

Though Lily’s stories were girlish, Severus enjoyed them all the same. No word coming from Lily’s mouth could be wrong. Severus’ favorite Muggle story was _The Snow Queen,_ because the children in the story were both ordinary children and not anything to do with royalty, but they ended up happily ever after, like all Muggle stories did. “Why do they always begin with ‘once upon a time’ and end with ‘happily ever after’?” he asked Lily.

“To be honest, I don’t really know, Sev,” said Lily dreamily. “But it does make the story more charming, in its own way.”

Lily was also enchanted by the stories Severus told her, particularly the ones by Beedle the Bard. “I wonder if the Deathly Hallows arereal,” she told Severus seriously one day. “It would be fantastic to even have one of the Hallows.” Her eyes suddenly lit up and her glorious, mischievous smile lit up her face. “Which Hallow would _you_ want out of the three? I find the Invisibility Cloak really useful. And the Peverell brother who owned it was the last one to die, wasn’t he?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’d love the Elder Wand,” Severus told her, thinking just as seriously. “Imagine if you had the most powerful wand in the world. You could win any duel… you could do absolutely anything! Then, of course, I wouldn’t brag about it,” he said hastily. “I’m not stupid.” Lily nodded and giggled.

When they weren’t talking or telling each other stories, they spent their time by the river, listening to the flow of the water. Or watching clouds, pointing out the interesting shapes they made. And occasionally, they would teach each other new magic tricks they had discovered on their own. They didn’t have wands, but they had both learnt to control their wandless magic very well. Yet Severus realized his magic was only at its full potential when he was experiencing extreme emotions, while Lily could do almost anything without any effort at all. Severus had grown up thinking that purebloods were always better than Muggleborns at magic, but now that he had met Lily, he realized he was wrong. He himself was a half-blood, but he was no match for Lily, who could do the most wonderful things with her wandless magic, and to think she had been blissfully ignorant of magic until very recently. Severus was shocked to think if Lily had been raised in a magical environment; where would her powers be then?

But no matter what they did, what they spoke the subject always came back like a boomerang to Hogwarts. Lily was excited, _beyond_ excited to see the wizarding world, and she constantly interrogated Severus on several different aspects of it. Severus always answered patiently, and more than willingly, delighted that he was the one who could hold her attention for so long. Lily’s excitement was contagious, and when summer came round again, both of them were hoping each day that their acceptance letter to Hogwarts would come.

“Sev! Severus! Look!” Lily said one summer’s day, running through the meadow she and Severus met up in every time they saw each other, with a small yellowish envelope clutched tightly in her hand. “I got my letter! It finally came!”

Severus grinned widely at Lily. “I got my letter too, just this morning!” In fact, he had been expecting his letter all summer, and looked out the window every day for a sign of an owl carrying a letter with the unmistakable red wax seal. This morning, he saw a small barn owl carrying the envelope with the seal, and almost fell off his chair in shock. He remembered rushing to the window, beckoning the owl to come his way, but forgot to open the window. As a rather hilarious result, the owl had crashed into the glass window, and fallen unceremoniously into the rosebush outside. Severus had to hurry into the garden and pick the letter and the poor owl up. He still had not told his parents; the owl was currently recuperating in his bedroom, hooting softly, and he himself had rushed out the door with the letter in search for his best friend.

“Oh, I _knew_ I would go to Hogwarts!” said Lily, jumping up and down. “It’s such a coincidence we got our letters on the same day, isn’t it, Sev? The Ministry people are at my house at the moment, so I got to get out of the house. I’m so happy that I could… _melt!”_

“Please don’t,” he said, worriedly, taking the little redhead ball of energy seriously. If Lily melted, he would be without a best friend and companion to go to Hogwarts with. _Then_ what would he do?

Lily giggled, and quite suddenly, did something she had never done before. She ran forward and hugged Severus so tightly they fell over on top of each other with the force of the impact. “Argh! Get off me!” said Severus, feeling rather disgruntled. “It’s only a letter!”

“But I can’t wait, Sev! I finally get to learn proper magic, with a wand! Look, in the letter, we have to go to this place called…” she hurriedly opened the envelope and glanced at the parchment inside for a brief second, “Diagon Alley. What a funny name. It sounds like the word – diagonally, if you say it really fast!”

“That’s because Diagon Alley hasn’t got any right angles,” explained Severus.

“Does it really?” said Lily adoringly. “I’d love to see that! Wow, Sev, you know so much! I bet you’ll be top of the class at Hogwarts.”

Severus blushed with the attention he was getting. “No, I don’t! If you read more wizard books then you’ll know just as much as I do, maybe even more!” Lily still had not gotten off him, and her hair was falling over her face, shrouding herself and Severus from the rest of the world. 

“Only if you read more Muggle books!” Lily teased.

“No! You can’t trust me with your books, Lily! I’ll – I’ll lose them or something!” In fact, Severus didn’t read an awful lot apart from Potions books. He found Potions fascinating – and the things they explained in the books just seemed to _click_ in his mind. So though Lily didn’t know this, he had completely no interest in reading any Muggle books.

“Please, Lily, get off me,” he said, sighing finally. 

“No,” said Lily, sounding defiant.

“Get off!” said Severus, and his arms reached up to tickle Lily in the place he knew she was most ticklish. Lily squealed and rolled off him, but Severus continued to tickle her, and her laughs soon changed to pleading as she continuously begged him to stop. “Eek! Stop!” she giggled. When Severus pretended not to hear her, she tickled him back, and soon they were both rolling around on the grass, tickling each other without mercy.

At some point later on, both of them collapsed, panting for breath. They had been so engrossed in their tickling that they had rolled out of the shade of the oak tree, and they lay next to each other, staring at the robin-egg blue sky, which was dotted with clouds.

“I’m so tired,” said Severus, still gasping for breath. “Let’s watch clouds.”

The next few hours were spent staring at the clouds, and every shape they pointed out seemed to be different things in each other’s perspective.

“Oh, look, that’s a horse!” said Lily.

“No, that’s a Thestral, it’s got wings!” argued Severus.

“Well, it’s got to be a white Thestral, then,” said Lily with a certain sense of finality about her. “It’s a white cloud.”

Severus sighed in defeat. If only he hadn’t told Lily that Thestrals were black… 

“And, it’s summer again,” Lily said, as she turned over on the grass to look at him.

Severus himself couldn’t believe the fact that already a year had gone by. It only seemed like yesterday that he was watching Lily levitate the small, green leaf, and yet here they were, as close as best friends could possibly be. And now they were going to go to Hogwarts together… Severus had so much to show Lily that he couldn’t do through books. He couldn’t count the number of books they had lent each other throughout the years of their friendship. Lily had mostly lent him ancient classics, but he enjoyed them all the same, though the language was a little bit complicated in some of them – _Anne of Green Gables, A Christmas Carol, To Kill a Mockingbird_... he had lent her some of his mother’s old textbooks from Hogwarts, such as _A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration,_ which she had enjoyed, but had not tried to do any of the things listed in the book; and _Quidditch Through the Ages,_ which she had not enjoyed at all. “I don’t get why so many people are excited about people flying on brooms throwing balls at each other,” she told Severus once. Lily appeared to be most interested in Potions, which Severus was glad about, so he lent her more and more Potions books from his vast collection in his room.

“Yep,” he said, in reply to Lily. “The last summer before we go to Hogwarts.”

“We have to get school supplies,” said Lily, who had opened her letter again and was frowning at it. “What’s this here? ‘1 pewter cauldron, size two’? ‘1 wand’? ‘Students may bring an owl, a cat or a toad’ – ” Her eyes widened. “Wow! We actually get to keep pets?”

“Not pets, familiars.”

“Whatever,” said Lily, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. “Same thing, Sev. My question is, where’s Diagon Alley?”

“It’s behind the Leaky Cauldron,” said Severus. Lily looked baffled, so he attempted to elaborate, “You know, the pub, with that wall of bricks.”

Lily looked more confused than ever. Severus laughed and shook his head. “Never mind. I’m sure your parents know about it.”

Lily nodded, then suddenly it looked as if a lightbulb and gone on in her head, like a great idea had suddenly occurred to her. Severus smiled as he remembered a Muggle cartoon he had watched once on his father’s television (which he rarely used, since he was always afraid of his father finding out) where a person had had the same expression that Lily was wearing right this second, but an actual lightbulb had appeared next to it. That had made Severus laugh – the things that Muggles thought of sometimes were absolutely hilarious. 

“My parents!” Lily exclaimed. “I just remembered! They asked me to invite you to tea today!”

Severus had been to Lily’s house several times already in the past few years, and he had always enjoyed his stay. Severus was always able to go – after all, his parents didn’t really care about him, did they? They had no idea where he went every day. They didn’t know anything about Lily or her family. They didn’t even know he had a friend. They probably didn’t care, either.

However, Severus was glad that his parents didn’t care about him for once. Severus loved going to Lily’s for tea, but the only problem was Petunia was almost always there. Severus constantly ignored her when they were in the same room, and she did the same, which was fortunate, because Severus did not want to argue with her whenever he came over.

Severus thought about it for a moment, then looked at Lily, one eyebrow raised. “Aren’t the Ministry people still at your house?”

“Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that. Maybe you can come home for dinner.” Lily smiled. “Yes, that would be a great idea! It’s perfect, in fact. Petunia won’t be here – she’s at her friend Kylie’s, so we can do anything at all.”

“Magic?” Severus said hopefully.

“Of course, what else do you think?” said Lily, giving him a meaningful look. Both of them laughed. Severus was glad – it was definitely the best time to go to Lily’s house tonight. Lily’s parents had just been informed about the wizarding world, and not only would they be fascinated by Lily’s ability to do magic, but the fact that he could too. He thought of the many things he could talk to Lily’s parents about – he could tell them all about the wizarding world, everything they wanted to know. And the best thing was that Petunia wasn’t going to be there. Severus had always wanted to show Lily’s parents how to levitate objects and things that she and him had taught each other, but he never had the chance to because Petunia was always there to glare at him. Of course, he wasn’t scared of Petunia – okay, maybe he was a bit – but he didn’t want to upset Lily.

The only time he had actually tried magic was the first time he had been to Lily’s. He remembered it well – Lily’s house was well-decorated and very colourful, just like Lily herself. The first thing that came into Severus’ mind was that it was homely and comfortable, unlike his own house, which had furniture scattered all over the place, and a few stray wine bottles in the corners of every room. Sometimes when Severus’ father had one of his rages, he would throw the glass bottles around the house, at the furniture, at the walls, but usually at Severus. Severus had gotten used to it, but always wore socks in his home, because he had to carefully step over the shards of broken glass.

Lily’s parents were always very kind to Severus, and piled heaps of food on his plate, more than he could eat. “Look at the poor boy,” Mrs. Evans always said. “He’s as thin as a stick!” Severus was grateful for their thoughtfulness, but was always careful not to eat too much, in case he upset his stomach. Severus was used to eating quietly at home, all by himself. He constantly had to make his own breakfast, but when he went to Lily’s, he found it to be the complete opposite of what he was used to. He had tried going into the kitchen to help make the food, but Mrs. Evans had shooed him out, saying that she could manage, and he could have a chat with Lily whilst he was waiting. Severus had been surprised, but obliged anyway.

Also, the entire family chatted during the meal – of course, Petunia would stay sullenly silent, as though in a strop, and though her parents constantly bombarded her with questions, she would only reply with yes’s and no’s, even those gradually fading into noncommittal jerks of the head. Apart from Petunia, the rest of the family was always very cheerful during meals. Mrs. Evans would ask Severus to send his parents her regards, and Severus always told her he would, though he never did. Mr. Evans would constantly recount funny but slightly disturbing incidents that they had encountered, like the time he dropped his newspaper in the bath, or the time he had accidentally stepped in something the dog had left on his front doorstep. The latter had completely put Petunia off her lunch, and she had stomped upstairs in a huff, claiming that Mr. Evans had just ruined her appetite. Mr. Evans had been slightly put out by that, but Severus had pretended not to notice, to his obvious relief.

“Maybe you could sleep over too!” Lily jumped up in excitement. “Yes, that’s a great idea, Sev! Petunia won’t be here, so she wouldn’t mind – at least, she wouldn’t know anyway. My parents will definitely agree to that, they really like you, you know.”

Severus had never slept over at anyone’s house before. “Are you sure there’s room for me?” he said.

Lily reached out with her hand and playfully shoved Severus’ head to one side, giggling. “Don’t be silly! We can camp out in the living room. We could watch a movie, too!”

Severus had to admit he was a little bit excited at the prospect of going to another place to sleep, but he was really looking forward to it, now that Lily had mentioned a movie. He had never watched a movie before at home – his father deemed movies as ‘a waste of time and space’, so he had banned his son from watching them too.

“We’re going to have so much fun tonight!” said Lily, grinning from ear to ear, her eyes shining with happiness. “We can eat ice cream and popcorn when watching the movies. I hope there’s something good on the television tonight!”

Severus was confused. “W…what?”

After spouting continuously about movies, popcorn and the like, Lily concluded their plan for the night, and took Severus’ hand as she pulled him out of his slouch-sit position.

“Come on, Sev!” cajoled Lily. “It’ll be fun! We have so much to do, I’ve planned it all out.”

Severus gave in, not reluctantly, and followed Lily to her house on Spinner’s End.


	2. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus arrives at Lily's house, where he is welcomed by the entire family. Well, almost.

“Mom!” yelled Lily, ringing the doorbell to her home multiple times. Instead of the harsh ring that Severus was used to back home, a strangely familiar tune rang through the house. Severus tried to think of the name of the song – he had heard it once on the radio at home. He couldn’t remember the full name, but he was sure it had something to do with flowers. _How fitting_ , he thought to himself. 

Meanwhile, no one was answering the door. Looking exasperated, Lily used one hand to rap on the door, and the other to ring the doorbell again. “Dad! Sev’s here for dinner!”

The door opened, and a man that Severus did not recognize looked down at the two of them. At first, Severus thought the man was Lily’s father, but then he realized that Mr. Evans didn’t look like that. For one thing, Mr. Evans wasn’t as thin, and he was also a great deal shorter. Severus looked the man up and down, and suddenly noticed something sticking out of the man’s pocket – a wand. Severus instantly knew that the man was from the Ministry, but he was dressed in smart Muggle attire, so as not to attract attention.

Lily obviously looked like she knew the man was from the Ministry, but she stammered, looking a little flustered. “Um, sorry, I thought you were finished talking to my parents – ”

“No, no, I was just about to leave,” said the man kindly, smiling at them from his great height. Severus felt the back of his neck strain a little bit; the man really was rather tall. “You can go in, your parents are there.”

The man opened the door wider to let Severus and Lily enter the room. Once again, Severus was overwhelmed by the homelike, cosy feeling of the entire house. Lily was still holding Severus’ hand, and led him over to where her parents sat in the red armchairs by the television, looking a little dazed.

The door swung shut on its own, and everyone jumped. Severus turned around to look, and saw the man walking out into the garden, Disapparating with an inaudible _pop._ Severus tried to give Lily a meaningful look, wanting to tell her about Apparition. She didn’t look at him, instead, she was staring fixedly in the direction of the armchairs.

Lily looked as if she, for once, was lost for words. She froze on the spot as her parents turned around to look at them, and Severus realized that now was not the time to talk about things like a man disappearing into thin air, however interesting it was.

He suddenly became aware of the situation he was in. Lily had never told her parents about her ability to do magic, so that must have been quite a shock for her parents when they found out. What were they going to do next? What if Lily’s parents were just like Petunia, and discriminated Lily for being a ‘freak’? Severus remembered Lily telling him about Petunia tattling to her parents about Lily. Apparently her parents hadn’t believed her, but since then, they had always been baffled by their daughters’ sudden breakup in friendship. But that had been so many years ago, surely her parents couldn’t remember…?

Severus had the sudden impulse to run out of the house before things got any worse, but Lily squeezed his hand tightly and, not wanting to leave her, he stayed put. There was a long, awkward pause.

Mr. Evans was the first to break the silence. “Why didn’t you tell us before, Lily-flower?” he said. Severus tried to glean something from his expression, but it was very stubbornly blank. He waited to see what would happen next.

Lily looked down, biting her lip nervously, and Severus inwardly winced as her grip on his hand suddenly got tighter. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said, in a small voice that was completely unlike the one that Severus was used to. Severus could hear the fear in her voice. Then it hit him. _Fear?_ He had originally thought that Lily, confident, brave, outgoing Lily, was never scared. But she certainly was frightened now, as her parents’ eyes focused on them.

“Lily!” said Mrs. Evans. “There’s no need to be sorry!” She got out of her armchair and went over to Lily, crouching down so she was at eye-level with the two of them. “We understand now. Of course you wouldn’t want to tell us, after what happened with Petunia – it was because of this that you aren’t friends with Petunia anymore, wasn’t it?”

Lily glanced at her mother, then looked away again, staring at her feet. Severus hastily copied her, unsure of what to do.

Lily burst into tears. Severus was taken aback; he had not expected this at all. He had planned to do everything Lily did for fear of doing something stupid, but obviously now that Lily was crying, he couldn’t do the same. He was at a loss for what to do next. Was he supposed to comfort her?

“I was so scared to let you know!” sobbed Lily. “After Petunia called me a – ” she let out a loud wail, “ _freak_ , I didn’t want to tell you! I thought you wouldn’t want me anymore because I was different!” She threw herself into her mother’s arms, and continued to bawl. “I kept this all a secret, because I was so afraid that you would think I was a freak too – and – and…” Lily started to hiccup as she cried, and Severus was standing awkwardly next to her as Mrs. Evans held onto Lily, stroking her back, tears slowly welling up in her grey eyes, which looked startlingly like Petunia’s, but seemed to be more compassionate.

Severus had no idea that Lily had been terrified of facing her parents about magic. He had always assumed that she was carefree and relaxed about her special ability, but after this sudden outburst, he knew the truth. _She’s so brave,_ he thought to himself. If things had been different and he was Lily instead, he wouldn’t have been brave enough to hold it all in. Perhaps Lily didn’t tell him about her own worries because she thought he had enough on his own shoulders, which was true – but a part of Severus still wished that she had told him about it.

“Don’t be silly, Lily,” said Mr. Evans, who had stood up, and was approaching them. He crouched down just like what Mrs. Evans had done, and looked into Lily’s eyes. Lily’s lip stopped trembling suddenly, and she looked back at her father, uncomfortably, but defiantly, as if daring him to shout at her, like what Petunia had done.

“But I’m _different!_ ” yelled Lily. “You’re just saying that so you won’t upset me!”

Mrs. Evans let go of her, and put her hands on Lily’s shoulders, holding her at arms length. Slowly, she said to her, with nothing but unmistakable truth in her eyes, “We’ll never stop loving you, Lily.”

“No matter what,” Mr. Evans added with a loving smile.

A huge wave of relief washed over Severus, as he watched Lily’s expression change in a similar manner. Her eyes were glistening with tears, but Severus could tell she was just as reassured as he was. Once again, she threw her arms around her mother, kissed her on the cheek, then ran to her father, doing the same to him. “I love you,” she whispered, joy written all over her face, despite the quickly drying tear-stains.

Normally, whenever Severus saw Mrs. Evans kissing Mr. Evans before he went out, or Lily hugging Mr. Evans when he came home from work, he would look away, cheeks flushed. Severus had never felt loved in his family, what with his alcoholic father and depressed mother, so he had always found it strange and embarrassing when Lily’s family was so affectionate to each other. This time, however, he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable in the slightest. He felt happy for Lily, but he also envied her. If only his parents loved him like Lily’s parents did.

“We’re happy for you, Lily,” said Mr. Evans. “We couldn’t be any more proud of our daughter.”

“It’s where you belong,” said Mrs. Evans. “It’s your world now.” 

* * *

Severus had expected dinner without Petunia to be a completely stress-free affair, but everyone was unusually quiet. He, as usual, had more on his plate than he could eat, due to Mrs. Evans’ generosity (“You need fattening up, my dear boy!”), and he was happily tucking in. However, Severus noticed that Lily had a faraway expression as she lifted her fork mechanically to her mouth, chewed, then swallowed. Severus looked at Lily’s parents and noticed that they were also looking thoughtful. After Lily’s emotional outburst, her parents had hastily gone to the kitchen to bring out the food for dinner, and Severus helped Lily set the table. Now they were eating, it seemed that no one knew what to talk about. There was a gossamer-thin layer of tension hanging in the air.

Severus knew that Lily’s parents were still a little stunned by the fact that their daughter had been keeping a secret from them for so long, but Severus had not expected them to be _this_ surprised. When he found out he had gotten over it pretty fast, but that was probably because he wasn’t a Muggle, unlike Lily’s parents.

Mr. Evans coughed, and fumbled around on the chair beside him, then opened a magazine and began to read. Mrs. Evans cleared her throat and suddenly looked very interested in the painting on the wall behind Severus, as if she had never seen it before. Lily was still eating very much like a – what were they called in the Muggle world? – robot, but Severus noticed her other hand, which was underneath the table, was twitching like mad. Severus knew from experience that Lily was itching to talk about something from the way her fingers drummed on her lap, and he didn’t have to guess what she wanted to talk about. Severus tried to think of a way to break the silence, and an idea suddenly came to him. 

With all the power he could muster, he squinted at the salt shaker on the other end of the table, and concentrated. _Come on!_ he thought, as the salt shaker began to wobble from side to side. _You can do this!_

The salt shaker fell over.

Lily snapped out of her reverie and stared at the salt-shaker, which was lying on its side, a little bit of salt spilling out of it. Mr. and Mrs. Evans had apparently not noticed the salt shaker which had randomly moved on its own – but then again, it wasn’t a surprise, since the tablecloth had muffled most of the sound the salt shaker had made as it tumbled to one side. One eyebrow raised, Lily glanced at Severus. He looked at Lily and winked.

Their eyes met, and Severus knew that she had the same plan in mind as soon as he saw those green eyes flash.

Smiling a little, Lily looked away, then said, “Mom, do you need any salt?”

“Sure, could you pass it over, darling?” said Mrs. Evans, turning her head to look at Lily.

Lily looked back at the salt shaker again, and Severus could see that particular sparkle in her eyes again. Severus stopped watching Lily and focused on the salt shaker instead. From the corner of his eye, he could see Mrs. Evans looking at Lily with a quizzical expression.

Slowly, steadily, the salt shaker rose into the air, and began its careful journey across the dinner table in mid-air.

Mrs. Evans looked up, and her mouth became a perfect and somewhat comical ‘O’. Severus could clearly see that Petunia took after her mother – he had seen the exact same expression on Petunia’s horse-like face the first time he had spoken to her, and though that had happened such a long time ago, he still remembered it as if it had happened yesterday. After all, it was the first time he had ever spoken to Lily – who could not remember meeting their first friend? His stomach flipped uncomfortably.

Mr. Evans, by now, had looked up from his magazine to watch the salt shaker floating across his plate. His mouth did not open like Mrs. Evans’ had, but Severus noticed with amusement that his eyes seemed to widen just a little bit.

Lily let out a giggle, and the salt shaker tipped itself upside down, shook itself so a little salt sprinkled itself on Mrs. Evans’ food, flipped itself the right way up again, and landed neatly on the table.

Severus looked at Lily, and she tilted her head with a meaningful expression, in the direction of where the pepper was. Severus nodded with a grin, and tried to levitate the pepper just like what Lily had done. His wandless magic wasn’t quite as good as Lily’s, but he still managed to float the pepper over to Mrs. Evans. “You’re welcome,” he said, still staring at the pepper, not daring to break the connection, as it tipped itself upside down, shook out a few grains of pepper, and righted itself next to the salt. However, it didn’t land quite so neatly, and Severus and Lily both laughed as it fell over with a small _thump_ , knocking the salt over in the process _._ “Sorry,” said Severus sheepishly. “I’m not quite so good at this as Lily is.”

“I thought you needed a wand to do that kind of thing,” said Mrs. Evans. “The man from the Ministry told me.”

“Don’t you get caught for doing magic like that?” said Mr. Evans curiously.

“No, you don’t,” said Severus. “We haven’t started school yet, so we’re fine even if we have the Trace. Lily and I have been practicing for ages.”

“Oh.” Mr. Evans blinked. “Well.” Severus could not help but stifle a laugh at Mr. Evans’ expression.

“What else can you do?” said Mrs. Evans, who was staring at the two of them in sudden admiration. “Could you… turn on the TV?”

Lily looked towards the TV, and instantly, the screen began to flicker, but before it could show anything, Severus concentrated, and the TV switched off again. “Sev!” said Lily, looking at him with an annoyed expression, but Severus knew from the twinkle in her eye that she was only kidding around.

“That’s something new,” said Severus. “We’ve never tried switching anything on and off before.”

“So that’s what you two have been doing all this time,” said Mr. Evans, with a laugh. “We never knew.”

* * *

The ice had finally broken. Severus and Lily proceeded to tell their parents about the many things they had done with their wandless magic. Lily’s parents fired question after question at Severus, asking him things like the difference between a wizarding family and a Muggle one, or whether wizards could drive. Severus had never received so much attention from anyone, not even Lily. He was rather uncomfortable with so many people looking at him and talking to him all at once, but after answering a particularly weird question from Mr. Evans (“I’ve heard that if you don’t completely smash an eggshell, a witch will come, turn it into a boat and sail out to sea to cook up a storm. Is that really true?”) he started to relax more. Lily told her parents all about the books that she and Severus had lent each other, and her parents were fascinated with the things that Lily and Severus were going to learn at Hogwarts. The only time Severus felt embarrassed was when Mrs. Evans suddenly commented, “We really should invite your parents round sometime. I’d really like to meet them.” Severus said nothing, and furtively glanced at Lily, who was doing the same. Both of them thought it was best not to say anything.

Severus had never told Lily about the abuse his father inflicted on him almost daily, but he knew that she was aware of his father’s temper. Severus was sure she had heard his father shouting at Severus on countless occasions, but she never said anything, for which Severus was thankful. He didn’t really want to talk about it, just thinking about his father made him wince.

Dinner was quickly finished, with Severus telling Mrs. Evans over and over again that he simply _could not_ eat another bite, and after Mrs. Evans had finally given in, Lily led Severus to the sofa which was right in front of the TV. They flopped down on the bouncy red cushions, pausing to laugh as it made squeaky noises.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans came in with some popcorn and drinks, telling them they only had enough time to watch one movie. “Just one, mind,” said Mrs. Evans. “We don’t want you all groggy and tired when you get up tomorrow morning. After watching the movie, both of you go straight to bed.” Lily and Severus promised them they would, so Lily’s parents left the room, looking satisfied.

Lily was pulling out a bright orange sleeping bag for Severus, and a pink one for herself. “My parents bought these when we went camping once,” said Lily. “I hope you don’t mind the colour – it’s really comfortable, I’m sure you’ll like it.” When Lily was finished, Severus cautiously slid into his sleeping bag, and found it to be as comfortable as Lily had described. At home, he was used to sleeping on the tiled floor with nothing but a dirty towel whenever his father had one of his rages and locked him in the kitchen, and he was pleased to find that the sleeping bag was very warm. “It’s okay,” he said to Lily. “I’m fine with orange.”

Sighing contentedly, Lily turned on the TV. “Oh goodie!” she exclaimed in delight. “It’s _Melody Fair_! This only came out recently, I can’t wait to see it!" 

“What’s it about?” said Severus curiously.

“It’s kind of like a romance movie…” said Lily, and just as Severus was about to interrupt her, she hastily explained with widened eyes, “Oh, it’s not what you think! It’s not like those soppy movies that my parents always watch…” She wrinkled her nose.

“So it’s a romance movie, but it’s _not_ a romance movie?” said Severus skeptically. “What are you on about, Lily?”

“Come _on,_ Sev! It’s a really good movie – just watch.”

Severus had the urge to stick out his tongue and tell Lily just how much he didn’t want to watch the movie, but he kept quiet for fear of upsetting her. Severus never wanted to make Lily cry, not just because she was his best friend, but because of the helplessness he always felt when girls turned into human hosepipes. He told himself that perhaps this _Melody Fair_ wasn’t so bad – at least it wasn’t about ditzy princesses and fairy godmothers. He supposed this movie wasn’t going to be as bad as one about seven weird dwarves or lost glass slippers. 

Sighing, he reached for some popcorn, and the movie began.


	3. Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus and Lily prepare for Hogwarts.

Severus found that he had quite enjoyed watching the movie, which he thought was rather unexpected. Lily had been right; it wasn’t soppy in the least, and it was very sweet. Severus knew that it was only a story, but he wished it had been real.

He switched off the TV, and got back into his orange sleeping bag. He noticed that Lily was already fast asleep, her thumb in her mouth, peacefully still. Severus found it oddly comforting; her chest rose and fell with each breath, and her waterfall-like hair fanned out on her pillow…

* * *

_He was in the meadow again, under the oak tree with Lily. The flowers were in bloom, all yellow and pretty like Lily’s dress…_

“Such nice flowers…” Severus mumbled.

“Wake up, you doofus!”

Severus didn’t normally sleep like this. It was hard to sleep comfortably at home, so he always woke up before the sun did to avoid further discomfort on the cold floor of his house. However, the sleeping bag was too warm, too soft… he closed his eyes again.

_Splash._

Severus gave a loud shout of surprise, and rolled over in shock. Forgetting that he was in a sleeping bag, he ended up getting tangled in a mess of cloth and fluffy pillows. “What the hell was that for?” he yelped. His entire body was freezing cold from the water that someone had just thrown onto him, and it was seeping into his clothes like ice.

“Get up!” Something came in contact with his stomach, hard. “Ow!” Severus got up again, groggily looking around for whatever had attacked him. He found the remote control lying near his stomach. “What?” he said, getting up again. He had half a mind to continue sleeping, but he knew that someone was going to hit him again if he did, perhaps with something that hurt much worse than a remote control.

There was another loud _splash,_ and another scream, but this time it came not from Severus, but from Lily. “Petunia, _don’t_! Stop!”

Severus, who was brushing his cold, wet hair out of his eyes, looked up at Petunia, who was fuming at both him and Lily. “Mummy and Daddy are going to take you out shopping,” she said flatly, and stormed off.

Severus exclaimed, “What the – ”

“I know,” said Lily, who was soaked from head to toe in freezing water, and was trying not to shiver.

“She _really_ doesn’t like me,” said Severus. He had completely forgotten that Petunia was going to be back in the morning. Lily nodded.

“Rise and shine!” said Mr. Evans, walking into the. As soon as he saw them, he stopped and stared. “What happened to you two?”

“We…” Severus tried to think of an excuse, but he couldn’t think of anything logical enough to explain the situation.

“We accidentally spilt the water you gave us for the movie last night,” said Lily hurriedly. She pointed at the tray where the drinks stood, but Severus noticed that the glasses were all full, and to top it all off, the tray was too far away from them to have doused them completely in water. 

 _Oh, well done,_ thought Severus sarcastically. But despite that, he didn’t understand why Lily hadn’t flat out told Mr. Evans the truth. Perhaps she didn’t want Petunia to get in trouble. Maybe that was something sisters did, he thought to himself. Meanwhile, Mr. Evans raised a suspicious eyebrow, and looked as if he was struggling to say something, but after a few seconds he just shrugged, and said, “Well, go on, then. Clean yourselves up, for goodness’ sake, and change your clothes. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes to Diagon Alley.” He turned and left.

Severus and Lily looked at each other, and at the same time, both of them started grinning from ear to ear. “Diagon Alley!” Lily said excitedly. “ _Diagon Alley!_ We’re going today, Sev!” Ignoring the freezing cold of her soaked pyjamas, she started jumping up and down, like she always did when she was looking forward to something – badly. “We’re going to get our own books and things for Hogwarts! And a _wand!_ ” She went to the tray and picked up a spoon, swishing and flicking it all over the place as she danced around the room. “We’ll be able to do actual _spells!”_

Severus didn’t look half as excited as Lily did on the outside, but somewhere inside him, he could feel a rush of joy as he thought of the prospect of getting his own wand. It felt as if a bubble of happiness was rising inside him, and the elation he felt was exhilarating. He wondered what type of wand he was going to get. He didn’t know a great deal about wands, but he knew that every wand was unique and it chose the wizard, instead of the other way round.

“Race you!” he said. He and Lily both rushed to get ready for Diagon Alley, and the fun they were about to have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's my fanfiction.net A/N:
> 
> Thanks for the reviews guys! Please check out my other stories too. Though this story can be read separately, it is actually part of a series. If you’re interested in what happened before or after Severus and Lily went to Hogwarts, there are several of my fics you can pick from.  
> 1\. Four Seasons, a four-chapter work in which Severus first meets Lily.  
> 2\. Separate Ways, a three-chapter work about Severus and Lily’s journey from King’s Cross all the way to the Sorting in the Great Hall, and also the moment when Lily and James meet...  
> 3\. Ink, Parchment and a Quill, featuring the letters which Lily writes to her parents starting in her first year and ending in her third.


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